A South Dakota lawmaker said she received angry phone calls earlier this week after TPM highlighted a newspaper column in which she shared a joke about President Obama being a Muslim terrorist. But the way she sees it, her critics are just a bunch of humorless wet blankets.
“They saw no humor in my joke,” state Rep. Betty Olson (R) told the Rapid City Journal. “My local folks did. I re-posted it on my Facebook page and so far everybody on there has liked it. I do feel bad that so many people don’t have a sense of humor.”
Olson meandered her way through last month’s column with tidbits about local weather and an area high school football team before closing with an inflammatory joke that’s been circulated on conservative message boards:
This morning ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood warned the United States that if the United States continued meddling in Iraq, Libya, and other potential hot spots in the Middle East, they intend to cut off America’s supply of 7-11 and Motel 6 managers.
If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell, AT&T and AOL customer service reps.
Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened not to send us any more presidents either.
It’s gonna get ugly, people.
Olson said she received a call from a woman in Wenatchee, Wash., “who said I shouldn’t be in any position of authority because I’m a dumb clod and an ignorant Republican.”
“Then she slammed down the phone. I think she was upset,” Olson recalled.
But the legislator defended her attempt at humor and dismissed the idea that she’s a racist.
“I wasn’t trying to achieve anything,” Olson told the Rapid City Journal. “I was just trying to end with a joke like I normally do. Apparently some people didn’t find it funny. As far as being racist, the guy who sent it to me is married to a black lady, so I don’t think racism had anything to do with it.”
